TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2012. There are 334 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Feb. 1, 1862, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," a poem by Julia Ward Howe, was published in the Atlantic Monthly.

On this date:

In 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York. (However, since only three of the six justices were present, the court recessed until the next day.)

In 1861, Texas voted to leave the Union at a Secession Convention in Austin.

In 1922, in one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries, movie director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death in his Los Angeles home; the killing has never been solved.

In 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they'd been refused service.

In 1982, "Late Night with David Letterman" premiered on NBC.

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush responded to the collapse of Enron by proposing regulation reforms of 401(k) retirement plans. Justice Department investigators directed President Bush's staff to preserve the paper trail of any contact with Enron.

Five years ago: The departing top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that improving security in Baghdad would take fewer than half as many extra troops as President George W. Bush had chosen to commit.

One year ago: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he would not run for a new term in September elections but rejected protesters' demands he step down immediately and leave the country, vowing to die on Egypt's soil, after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million Egyptians staged their biggest protest to date calling on him to go.